Communications in Humanities Research

- The Open Access Proceedings Series for Conferences


Communications in Humanities Research

Vol. 6, 14 September 2023


Open Access | Article

An Analysis of the Influence of Post-war Culture on The Maltese Falcon Through the Femme Fatale Character of Bridget

Lixuan Sun * 1
1 University of Washington

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Communications in Humanities Research, Vol. 6, 25-30
Published 14 September 2023. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by EWA Publishing
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Citation Lixuan Sun. An Analysis of the Influence of Post-war Culture on The Maltese Falcon Through the Femme Fatale Character of Bridget. CHR (2023) Vol. 6: 25-30. DOI: 10.54254/2753-7064/6/20230043.

Abstract

Culture is a product of social groups, and art as a medium presents people’s ideas. It has become particularly important and necessary to study the integration of culture into art, that is, how art presents a certain culture to understand society. This paper selects the post-World War II society and the resulting post-war culture. The paper discusses existentialism and feminism in post-war culture by examining the portrayal of the female character Bridget in the film noir The Maltese Falcon based on Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic personality theory. Summarizing the film and examining the existential femme fatale character Bridgette, the paper explores how the culture of postwar society influenced and reflected each other. The paper concludes that Bridgette, as a typical classic female character in a film noir, has an existential femme fatale personality that reflects the postwar culture that existed in society at that time. At the same time, cinema as an artistic medium interacts with and integrates with society.

Keywords

post-war culture, The Maltese Falcon, film noir, existentialism, femme fatale

References

1. ARTICLE: Feminism and Film Noir. 2018. https://www.whidbeyislandfilmfestival.org/the-vault/2018/10/29/feminism-and-film-noir

2. Bauer, Stephen F., Leon Balter, and Winslow Hunt. (1978). “The Detective Film as Myth: The Maltese Falcon and Sam Spade.” American Imago : 275-296.

3. Gale, Steven H. (1996). “The Maltese Falcon: Melodrama or Film Noir?.” Literature/Film Quarterly 24. 2: 145.

4. Rockler Michael. (2009). “Sam Spade, Existential Hero?” Philosophy Now https://philosophynow.org/issues/75/Sam_Spade_Existential_Hero

5. Rs Jeffrey. 2013. “Feminism and the Figure Fembot (Part 4.4 of 7)” Academic https://robinjeffreyauthor.com/2013/11/23/feminism-and-the-figure-fembot-4-4-of-7/

6. Feminism and the film noir. https://privilegeoflegendsblog.com/2015/10/07/feminism-and-the-film-noir/

7. Place, Janey. 1978. “Women in Film Noir.” Women in Film Noir. Ed. E Ann Kaplan. London: British Film Institute, 47–68. Bloomsbury Collections. Web. 26 Dec. 2022. <http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781838710163.ch-003>.

8. Lise Hordnes. “Does Film Noir Mirror The Culture Of Contemporary America?” © 1994-2012 GMW - University of Groningen — Humanities Computing. http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/essays/general/does-film-noir-mirror-the-culture/women-in-film-noir.php

9. Shillock, Larry T. (2012). “The global and local femme fatale in The Maltese Falcon: a reappraisal.” West Virginia University Philological Papers 55: 135-153.

10. Film Noir’s 10 Most Dangerous Leading Ladies. OCTOBER 29, 2018. https://www.whidbeyislandfilmfestival.org/the-vault/2018/10/29/film-noirs-10-most-dangerous-leading-ladies

Data Availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Authors who publish this series agree to the following terms:

1. Authors retain copyright and grant the series right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this series.

2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the series's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this series.

3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See Open Access Instruction).

Volume Title
Proceedings of the International Conference on Social Psychology and Humanity Studies
ISBN (Print)
978-1-83558-005-9
ISBN (Online)
978-1-83558-006-6
Published Date
14 September 2023
Series
Communications in Humanities Research
ISSN (Print)
2753-7064
ISSN (Online)
2753-7072
DOI
10.54254/2753-7064/6/20230043
Copyright
14 September 2023
Open Access
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Copyright © 2023 EWA Publishing. Unless Otherwise Stated